By Hub Games (Designer Ondrej Soua)
This is a game that I have been really excited to try out, so I reached out to HUB Games and luckily for me they sent me out a copy for free. The art is cool and who doesn't love a good animal game! So, does this one live up to the wild(life) hype or is it one to leave deep in the jungle.
The tag line states "animals from around the world battle for supremacy". Before opening this game therefore, I thought it was going to be an asymmetric battle game but, in fact it is far simpler than that. Kombo Klash reminds me of a well put together Candy Crush style board game. Each time you can place 3 or more tiles of the same type together, side to side not diagonally, you score the points in the corners of the cards and then flip the cards over (e.g. 3 cards worth 3 points each = 9 points). You each get 5 tiles in hand per turn and take as many actions as you would like but, you must place at least one tile and they have to be touching the side of another tile on the board (including the draw pile that sits in the centre). At the end of your turn you draw back up to 5 tiles in hand and move to the next player. The shapes you end up scoring tend to form Tetris-esque polyomino shapes. Anyone else hear the Tetris theme every time the word "Tetris" is mentioned?.....no....just me then haha.
Each tile also has it's own power that you can choose to use immediately upon placing it if you want to which sometimes fit quite nicely with the animals used in the game i.e. the kangaroo kicks a tile one play over which is really cool. These abilities range from flipping another card to be face up/face down, to moving/replacing tiles or scoring points. The range of powers is well thought out and no one tile feels too strong which makes all games feel fair no matter what tiles you draw. There is also a really cool Chameleon tile that has great art on it and this one can be used as any colour. The Chameleon quickly became my favourite as I've always wanted to be able to blend in to my background......especially in a bank so I could steal all the money or a Ferrari Dealership so I could take a spin in an Enzo.
The game is played quite quickly in roughly 15-30 minutes depending on the point score you agree on before starting and this can be quicker when you understand the gameplay. You use 50 points in a short game, 75 points in a medium length game and 100 points for a long game. The strategy seems very simple to start with but, the more you play the more you start to see 'the matrix of strategy' in more depth. Flip over some tiles that look ready for a 'Kombo' before your opponent can score from them if you can not get their first, remember where the Chameleons are so you can flip them over before the board gets wiped, try not to place too many tiles in the open for your opponents to use and/or placing tiles strategically to try to get a really high scoring 'Kombo', such as 5 cards worth 3 points each, etc. There are plenty of ways to play which makes this a lovely little game to play if you do not have a lot of time or if you want a light start to a game night. Set up is quick too.
The box says for ages 10+ but I think children even younger than that could play Kombo Klash and have fun as it is so simple. This would be especially true if their parents helped them out. It is a really fun and well designed game for all ages. The components for the game are good and exactly what you would expect from a small game like this, not amazing but, not bad either. In the components the only thing we, my fiancée and I, did not like was the cloth game board. It comes out with kinks on it that sometimes this makes it impossible to place your tracker on the right number and it makes a nasty scratchy sound sometimes when you are flipping tiles that did not affect me but, went through my fiancée so she was not a fan of this material at all. Something to be aware of. Maybe this would be better if you ironed the cloth but, who does that??? haha
Also, if you are only a fan of very serious heavy games then this may not be the game for you. Other than this there are not many downsides that I can see. Good well designed game that could be a great introduction game for newer gamers as the design feels very familiar to a lot of the popular mobile phone games of these times. Give it a go and see if you can be the king of the jungle.
Final Score - 7/10
Overview - "A really simple and fun starter or filler game for game night. Great to teach new or older gamers, interesting mobile phone gaming style strategy that can be fun and competitive when things get going. Highly recommended, especially for families with children. You may no want to play this game with everyone but in the right groups it will be a lot of fun. Don't make a monkey of yourself and get this game for your collection now"
Thanks for reading. Hope to see you at the game table soon!!
Note - thanks to HUB Games for providing me with a copy of this game for the review. My opinions are not affected by this and my rating above is an honest evaluation of how much I enjoyed the game.